Tuesday, March 30, 2010

The Good and Bad of the Day...

Kind of a mixed night here, Fiends. One one hand, I have a new Keyboard, the Bengals took out mine, here at home. Thought I would have to go to a Mac store, or order one, but Hans said (in a voice like someone talking to a well meaning child) "Go to walmart"

Who knew? $13! It's not, mind you, a SNAZZY keyboard, but I am typing again, here at the Spooky House. And if I am ever stupid enough to leave tea on the coffee table that turns into a desk again, well, I can get another. (should buy them in bulk..) Right tea on the floor (carpet can be cleaned) CAPPED water on the desk.

The not so fun thing is that I brought home a Veggie Sandwich for dinner.

Good for me, but for The Bengals, who consider it part of the deal that we share MY dinner after they have had theirs? You might think animal control ought to be called and myself reported for abuse. They are MAD! Disgusted really. Won't talk to me.

We'll switch again: Good Thing today: 78 freaking degrees! In March??? Tomorrow is meant to be warmer yet. And my Boss comes home tomorrow. Having left mid-winter, he is going to be surprised!

Not so fun again: Can anyone tell me WHY the rubbish people come at 5:00am? And why every bit of glass must be broken, practicing for the recycling Olympics? These guys have a Bee-beep thing going on too, whenever they stop. What is it about rubbish that it must go out EARLY??? There are noise ordinances, you can't mow your lawn before 9:00am. If I had a loud party at 5:00am, I'd get a heck of a ticket (hey, it HAS happened, the party, not the ticket)

I just need to know the why of so early.

Hmm..Need another good thing now. Not much left of today. Work is going to be pretty intense the next few weeks, with the Boss just back. I do READ everything, and will try and fly by and say something like "I'm insane, I'm insane, but I love you" more often than I have been. I love the chatter tho, and sometimes, checking on Blackberry, it makes me laugh just exactly when I need it most, even if I can't comment right then, and fall asleep as soon as I get home....

Love and Love,Lorraine

PS The Bengals are talking to me again, as if they understand the Veggie Thing was a bad joke and I no doubt will be pulling out a steak at any moment...

We had a lovely weekend of near-70 degree weather. Today rainy, windy and chilly. Durn spring is crazy!

Finally finished cleaning from hubby's 40th bday party. 6 loads of dishes! Praise be to the inventor of the dishwasher!!! And praise be to my housekeeper who came today and did the real deep-down cleanin', vaccuumin' and moppin'.

Hubby ordered and air hockey table for his have-to-have-a-silly-present-for-getting-old gift. Should be here Friday. I'm stoked! I love air hockey!

So I could be incorrect but I believe the trash thing is a health thing for the workers. During the summer if they were to be working later in the day when it gets HOT they would be at risk of heat stroke. Being a trash collector is very hard physical labor. So instead of switching the hours for winter and summer they have early hours. But I could be wrong.

Do you still have trash can collection in some parts rather than wheelie bins? Nowadays all our collectors just drive big trucks that pick up the bins...I can totally get the OH&S thing if they are running around throwing the contents of bins into trucks.

Around here the collections happen anytime between about 6am and mid afternoon.

Garbage may get picked up so early so that it doesn't have a chance to "ripen" in the sun. ::shrug:: Our service wants our garbage in bags in trash cans next to the street by 6:00 or 6:30 AM, though they are seldom here before 9:00 AM, and only on Tuesdays. They also changed their billing from quarterly to monthly this year.

Sally, where I am, we have the option of the wheelie bins. They drive the trucks that can pick them up; however, I've seen them open the wheeled bins and pick up the bags of garbage then carry them to the truck. Then they leave the bins in the road on their sides for you to drive around. :P We've also had to chase our lids down because they don't bother to put them back on the cans and the wind blows them all over.

Our trash pick up doesn't come too early here. Although the Schwann man is an entirely different story. He once banged on the door while I was still in bed, so, I stumbled to the door in my pajamas and I think I must have looked a fright because that Schwann man never returned to my home. I really did like those Silver Mint bars, though.

It's supposed to get close to 80 degrees here this weekend! I'm so excited! Going to a concert Saturday night, so, it should be fun.:)

Holey Moley, my sister-in-law just reminded me that she and my brother were married 31 years ago today. This makes me feel strangely ancient. I'm guessing it makes my parents feel even older. where have the years gone?

Quiche. You're getting seventy eight degrees and we're getting school cancellations for floods in fifty degrees? Well, I suppose we'll have our day. But MN warmer than RI? This is such an unpredictable area.

We have shiny shiny sunshine. Later it will be 68 degrees, which is, like, 20 or something to you forrin types.

I am dead impressed with your keyboard replacement skills, Q. :O

Bed, Bath and Beyond had these flexible silicone keyboards for a while, and I'm regretting not buying one now. You could spill all kinds of stuff on one of those. And possibly double it as a potholder if you wanted.

Hey, our garbage guys gave us all big wheelie bins for yard waste yesterday. They're enormous. You could hide a body in one. But they're designate for yard waste only, so I'll have to keep dumping them in the alley.

In Edmonton, in winter, they collect trash every other week, partly because it's harder for the trucks to get through and harder on the people collecting, but also because they can, since the trash is all frozen, no health problem.

I know in central Tejas the early trash pick-up hours have a lot to do with "ripeness". In Austin we last lived in a house and had the wheelie trashcans, but just a few houses down was an apartment complex, and the trash truck for the big dumpster? they'd come empty it at like 4 or 5 am. That'll wake you up.

Quiche, I am more amazed about the going to Wal-mart than the keyboard...I avoid those stores like the plague. I hates them. I don't know what they are like around there, but around here they are filled with this evil all consuming energy that makes me angry and uncomfortable the second I walk into one.

Had the trying to get to the airport to get Boss nightmare last night, the one where I keep getting weirdly thwarted.

This was after trying to get to sleep until 2:30.

Woke from the nightmare at 5:30, nearly got back to sleep and Boss CALLS trying to get to the airport and he has problems!

Solved them of course, but it was WEIRD. Did fall asleep for another couple hours. Had a bizarre dream abotu ELLEN and getting my boots fixed.

Glad to be working again.

Cecily, I don't CHOOSE walmart over a plethora of other options. Other options are over an hour away, and I need to be able to work at home. Needed a keyboard. Had no time. One goes there if one has to as that is my job, to get things done, however I need to.

Jess, if you, um, cause the body to become a body while it is in the yard, you could argue it's yard waste.... You just need to work out how to lure them there for, um, tranformance.

I had to do a home visit this afternoon. It was like sitting in an ashtray. Reminds me of before they banned smoking in pubs. Happily I was able to come straight home to wash my clothes and hair, but still have a scratchy throat& mild wheeze. NOT fun.

Impressed with Venus opening doors - clearly the cats want to all hang out hehe

You may have to ban me for a while as I have a feeling I'll be coming here to complain about my job (until it lasts - although they all love me so much I have that sinking feeling it's going to be impossible to extract myself - this Always happens to me. I'm not even that good, I'm just not crap...weird)

Do you know, when I was in Hawaii recently, these black ants kept getting into my Macbook keyboard - it was such a hassle to get them out. No idea what was drawing them to it as I've cleaned it from jam and honey before I travelled.

Life is very much better now. Charlie was waiting at the house this evening when I got home. He was so happy to be back he came up to me and rolled over on his back for a tummy rub. EVERYBODY very happy now.

Intensely active cats are what we like. Though every now and then we've had to remind ourselves that Yes, that is what we like and yes they are all over the place and demanding of everything one has to give. But they give back in spades, in entertainment and love.

Well, my friend Nikki was all excited about taking pictures in NYC and I mentioned I like certain photographers: Thomas Marent was great, Leonard Nimoy, my, he was a talented one ... Leonard Nimoy was a GREAT photographer ... "Do you know who Leonard Nimoy is?" asked I, innocently.

"Um. Uh. I know the name. Sort of."

(I do Vulcan salute) "Star Trek?" I prompt when she says nothing.

"Um."

"Spock! He played Spock."

And then my world comes to a halt as Nikki replies, "What's that?" and goes back to taking pictures out of the hotel window.

Yeah I used to work with someone who didn't know who Yoda was, except that she saw him in some rap video but had no context as to who he was. I don't care if you like scifi or fantasy, but i don't understand how you can exist without even knowing who these characters are.

And yes, from what I have seen Nimoy's photography I really enjoy it. I think the thing that I like most about it is the fact that he uses what is currently termed, "real women".

Lorraine, you MUST go back and watch "Big Bang Theory" from the beginning. You will love it even more when you learn what makes these characters tick [especially Sheldon, who's my favorite]. Glad you "found" the show - it's, to borrow a term, fabulous!

Sheldon: I'm polymerized tree sap and you're an inorganic adhesive, so whatever verbal projectile you launch in my direction is reflected off of me, returns to its original trajectory and adheres to you.

May morning find you sated with sleep and energetic for the day. May your dreams bring you inspiration and resolution. May your waking day bring you joy and wonder, your problems solved instantly. May sun shine on you, either externally or internally, and may you bring happiness to the life of one, especially if that one is you.

Temple Grandin writes fascinating books on animal behavior, and she talks about stuff like that. (She works in agriculture, so a lot of it is oriented towards handling beef steers, but the principles are very much the same.)

It's really interesting stuff.

And g'morning. The cat is convinced that I do not need to have breakfast or do yoga, and that I definitely do not need to go to work. And I am jealous of my friends with the day off... but crunched at work so need to go in.

There appears to be some hope of meeting my other non-work big deadline too, after which I will fall over. Boom.

It's been a long time since I've done more than tick and run. Not that you've missed much. Mostly me being tired and cranky.

Except for last weekend. My impromtu visit with Andrea was lovely. As my few and mostly blurry pictures showed, the prom was a lot of fun. No, I didn't dance. I'm a wallflower, born and bred. But I enjoyed watching. The best part was seeing Andrea not be recognized by most of her colleagues. Many jaws dropped.

Plus I got to meet her Kid, who is quite nice and very very smart, if rather energetic for someone unused to being around kids ;-) I also learned more than I ever knew I needed to know about Spongebob Squarepants. While the cat ran away whenever I appeared, the dog was very friendly. Maggie and I hit it off rather well, in fact. Fortunately for her, I've been well trained to scratch ears on demand. Andrea and I did scare her a bit after we dressed up. Very much a case of "who are you and what did you do with my mommy?"

The next day Andrea and I had lunch with my nearest&dearest friend, Isak, who lives in Champaign. Isak would be a great Fiend, so I thought these two awesome women should meet.

My only other excitement is my new personal essay seminar. Getting to take a free seminar per season is one of the employee perks at the Newberry. The first class was last Thursday. The instructor usually teaches memoir writing, so I was a bit afraid that this class would lean too much that way. But it looks like it's going to be a great experience. I jotted down several ideas for a particular essay during class, so I volunteered to be one of the students to bring in a draft next Thursday.

I've been writing and thinking this morning and have a bit more than 300 words down. It's interesting to see this essay going in a slightly different direction than I thought it would. I wonder where it will go next.

I hope peeing cats, bumpy heads, and all other woes are short-lived. And wishing everyone a beautiful spring/fall day.

I'm happy that nonfiction workshop did such good things for you, OSS. That's a fun place to be. :)

(And hey, I'll wallflower with you next time we're in any sort of proximity to dancing persons. I also prefer to observe. And nosh on the cheese cubes which are often available at such occasions. Love cheese.)

So Fancy Feast has had a 'grilled' option for years, I used to feed to the my cats as they would not eat the other stuff. Maybe your store stopped stocking the regular stuff, but I am fairly certain it is still out there. :-)

Fancy Feast did change their labels but the food is the same. I use to buy Gourmet Chicen Feast and now it is Classic Chicken Feast, which is the pate' style. Not sure what is up with Mim. Dragonsally not a good looking bump, hope you are feeling better. Glad dogs returned. Loved the Bob cat story. I know I am missing other comments, sorry.

Blimey Quiche, that is not a nice thing to be dealing with. Hope you figure out the cause quickly.Fancy Feast better not change their labels here. Two of their canned food varieties are some of the very few things that diabetic Tysie can have, and that will be really confusing if I have to make sure I'm getting the right stuff.

head is still attached to neck. Bump is still ouchy.Pete stayed awake all night to keep checking on me as I slept. IS that totally awesome or what?

With the help of awesome boy-neighbors and friends, got the air hockey table flipped upright and ready to play! Off to the store to get stuff for Waffles for Jesus in the morning so I can stay home the rest of the night, drink beer and play air hockey :D

Sally - glad you are ok!! owie!

Q - hope the peeing is under control. They sure can be little shits when they want to huh?!

And look, I write fiction when I'm not frantically trying to make nonfic deadlines. I also wash the dishes and do laundry. I finished editing a story that's now ready to resubmit, and wrote the first bit of a new story. Now feeling virtuous, and tired.

Speaking of virtuous, I donated my old car to public radio. If you are ever in a position to do such a thing, it is very easy and entirely painless. I think it took 20 minutes of my time, tops, and less than a week from start to car going away. I filled out a form online and mailed in my title, and someone came and got it. They'll tell me how much it sold for, and I'll get a tax donation. They will even take cars that won't run (didn't know that), which definitely beats having to pay someone to tow it away.

The donated car was a 20-year-old Geo Prizm. It still runs fine and is in decent shape for its age, but isn't worth a whole lot and I hadn't managed to sell it yet. I got tired of fussing with it. (Virtuous really just means lazy in this case!)